M

From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.

Latin alphabet
	Aa	Bb	Cc	Dd
Ee	Ff	Gg	Hh	Ii	Jj
Kk	Ll	Mm	Nn	Oo	Pp
Qq	Rr	Ss	Tt	Uu	Vv
	Ww	Xx	Yy	Zz

M m

M is the thirteenth letter of the Latin alphabet.

Contents

1 History

2 Alternate representations

2.1 Computing

3 Meanings for M

4 See also

History

The letter M represents the bilabial nasal consonant sound [m] in Classical languages as well as the modern languages. It derives its shape from the Greek Μ or μ. Semitic Mem originally pictured water, in all probability.

The Oxford English Dictionary (first edition) says that 'm' is sometimes a vowel in words like spasm and in the suffix -ism.

Alternate representations

Mike represents the letter M in the NATO phonetic alphabet.

In international Morse code the letter M is DahDah: - -

In Braille the letter M is represented as ⠍ (in Unicode), the dot pattern:

XX
..
X.

Computing

In Unicode the capital M is codepoint U+004D and the lowercase m is U+006D.

The ASCII code for capital M is 77 and for lowercase m is 109; or in binary 01001101 and 01101101, correspondingly.

The EBCDIC code for capital M is 212 and for lowercase m is 148.

The numeric character references in HTML and XML are "M" and "m" for upper and lower case respectively.

Meanings for M

In astronomy, M is an abbrevation for "Messier" in designations for the Messier Deepsky Objects.
In biochemistry, M is the symbol for methionine.
In calendars, M is often an abbreviation for Monday or for one of the months "March" or "May".
In chemistry,
- M is the symbol for molarity (M) of solutions.
- m is the symbol for molality (m) of solutions.
In the CMYK color model, M stands for the color magenta.
In comic books, M is the name of a member of "Generation X", a team of younger mutants affiliated with and coached by some of the former "X-Men".
In computing,
- M is a binary prefix meaning 2²⁰ = 1,048,576 (cf. M as a Metric prefix below).
- M is another name for the computer programming language MUMPS.
In currency, M denotes million or millions when used after certain currency expressions, such as $25M (twenty-five million dollars).
In film,
- M is the name of a film from 1931 directed by Fritz Lang about a serial killer who preys on children; see M (1931 movie).
- M is the name of a lesser-known film from 1951; see M (1951 movie).
- In the James Bond books and films, M is the codename of the head of MI6; see M (James Bond).
In international licence plate codes, M stands for Malta.
In mathematics, m is used to denote slope in slope-intercept form. An M-set is the opposite of a set of uniqueness.
In the Metric system,
- M, mega, is an SI prefix denoting 10⁶ = 1,000,000 (one million) (cf. M in computing above)
- m, milli, an SI prefix meaning 1/1000.
- m denotes metre (or meter), the SI base unit for length.
In music,
- M is the assumed name of the artist Robin Scott, who performed the 1979 #1 hit song "Pop Muzik".
- -M- is the artist name of the French singer Matthieu Chédid.
- "M" is the pseudonym for a Jazz vocalist hired by Yoko Kanno (see M (singer))
In physics, M-theory is a proposed solution for problems in superstring theories.
In radiocommunication, M is one of the ITU prefixes allocated to the United Kingdom.
In Roman numerals, M denotes one thousand, from mille in Latin.
In video games,
- M is the ESRB rating symbol for Mature.
- M is the abbreviation for Mario, a Nintendo character.
- The name of a glitch Pokémon, called 'M. (The real name consists of a glitchy symbol before and after the 'M.)
M is an abbrevation for the Russian design bureau Myasishchev